Little Bang Theory

On October 22 of this year, our current misAdministration submitted to Congress a request for another $45.9 billion in war related spending. This, if approved, will bring the total expenditure on The Iraq War to the obscene figure of $611 BILLION.

That’s $611,000,000,000. Closing on two-thirds of a Trillion dollars.

Meanwhile, the T-word elicits eye-rolling dismissals from the pundits on The Reicht who poo-poo these totals as Chicken-Little Quackery being foisted on the Good People of America by Lefty Islamo-Fascist Sympathizers.

Assuming for a moment that these figures are, at a minimum, true (some costs are doubtless sequestered away deep in the shadows within the Orwellian Machine which has replaced our Legitimate Government,) why should we care? Truth be told, We The People will pay for very little of it.

That onerous task will fall to our children, and our children’s children. Because, you see, we’re borrowing that money from China.

The trouble is, my children never signed for this loan; they expect to be kinda tied up repaying the astronomical costs of their college educations and struggling to afford their sky-rocketing mortgage payments and health care costs. And if you came right out and offered them this Illegal War of Aggression for the bargain price of $611 billion dollars (and counting,) I have a pretty good idea of where they’d tell you to stuff your idiotic idea.

I’m betting your children wouldn’t sign for it either.

So the pResident reaches his greasy mitt (hey, is that a coincidence, or do I detect a pattern here?) into the breast pocket of his plaid sport coat and produces a sheaf of fine print filled with obfuscations and disclaimers and hands Congress a Collective Pen (“Don’t worry ’bout a thing, Kid, I’ll take guuuud care of ya!“) and after the requisite pissing and moaning from the Dem’s side of the aisle, they sign it (trust me, it’s a Done Deal.)

Six Hundred Eleven BILLION dollars and counting.

Do you ever wonder what part of that will come from your community?

Do you ever wonder what else you could pay for if you were to borrow that amount?

Well now you can stop wondering and look it up. The National Priorities Project, a non-profit entity headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts, has done a tremendous amount of good work compiling and analyzing the relevant facts and figures to give us answers to these semi-mind-boggling conundra.

For instance, My Little Town (population 1,358) will contribute a proposed $900,000 in FY 2008. That’s about $663 for each man, woman and child. And since The Progeny aren’t going to contribute substantially to the total (just yet,) it looks like I just signed off on a loan for $1,988. And that’s on top of the $7,500 I borrowed to pay “Our Share” through FY 2007.

Good thing I had my dick shortened back in ’95.

So let’s say The Good People of Massachusetts had agreed (we did not!) to sign off on these loans through FY 2007. What other sorts of things could we have secured for ourselves and our neighbors and our children?

How about health care for 3,752,224 people?

How about 190,930 new elementary school teachers?

How about outfitting 20,093,811 homes to run on renewable energy?

The National Priorities Project Federal Budget Trade-Offs Page has lots of such “what-ifs” to ponder, allocated amongst many, many municipalities, counties and every State. I’m grateful to have this information as grist for the discussion mill, and hope that by sharing it around the ‘Sphere we can better make the case for moral government and the rule of law through the evocation of fiscal sanity.

A while back, a friend at work said she wanted to try making home-made raviolis. But you know how it is; one thing leads to another, and some things never get done.

Well, she piqued my curiosity, and soon I was dreaming up wicked ravioli recipes, despite never having made even the simplest of pastas before. Hell, I had never made any kind of dough, even though an auto-mechanic friend had taken up bread-making years ago (claiming it was the only thing he had found which really, truly got his fingernails clean.)

Anyway.

I went on line, found a pasta recipe, scrubbed my nails and dove in. It’s pretty spooky, gettin’ all dough-sticky and having no idea if you’re doing it right or wasting your time. But twenty minutes later I had a, um, bolus…

which I attacked with a bottle of cheap white wine (still with its full compliment of Wine Heft) and a paring knife

…which strips I then stuffed with a mixture of crab meat, ricotta cheese and fresh herbs from my porch boxes and served with a spicy chicken broth made with braised fennel, roasted red peppers and a healthy dollop of Frau Biergut’s Home-Made Habeñero Sauce:

This evening, bringin’ in the chard before another frosty night, I decided to make a hearty soup from my garden. Potatoes, cooked soft and pureéd, sauteéd onions, chard. Added some frozen corn and some hot Capicola, a li’l salt, a li’l peppa…